Anew study has found that water in the air, not just heat, is important in measu-组卷网

阅读理解-阅读单选 0.65 引用2 组卷144

A new study has found that water in the air, not just heat, is important in measuring global warming. The researchers say, when considering humidity and heat, the temperature increase is two times greater than earlier estimates.

The researchers also note, temperature by itself is not the best way to measure the effects of climate change and using temperature underestimates conditions in the tropical areas of the world.

The study was published on January 31 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The researchers team show that the energy created in extreme weather, such as storms, is related to the amount of water in the air. For this reason, they decided to use a special atmospheric measurement to show the amount of heat in an area of air. It is expressed in a scientific measurement for temperature known as degrees Kelvin.

Ramanathan is one of the writers of the study. He is a climate scientist at the University of California San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography. “There are two factors of climate change: temperature and humidity. And so far, we have measured global warming just in terms of temperature,” he says. “Warm air can hold more water than cold air. For every degree Celsius that air temperature increases, it can hold seven percent more water. When the water vapor in the air becomes liquid, it releases heat or energy. That’s why when it rains, now it pours.”

Ramanathan added that water vapor is a powerful heat-trapping gas in the atmosphere that increases climate change. From 1980 to 2019, the average world surface air temperature increased by 0.79 degrees Celsius. But when they considered energy from humidity, their temperature measurement had increased by 1.48 degrees Celsius. In the tropics, the warming was as much as 4 degrees Celsius.

Wuebbles is a climate scientist at the University of Illinois. He was not part of the study. But Wuebbles said the idea makes sense because water vapor is important in extreme rainfall. He said, “Both heat and humidity are important.”

【小题1】Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the passage?

A．The combination of water and heat decreases average surface temperature.

B．The reason why it pours is that cold air can hold more water than warm air.

C．Scientists adopt temperature degrees Kelvin as a special atmospheric measurement.

D．Scientists used both temperature and humidity to measure global warming in the past.

【小题2】How does Ramanathan illustrate his findings in the fifth paragraph?